Friday, 7 December 2012

There is no shortage of classical works that have been
described as seminal but, regardless of the claims of others, surely such a
term must be applied to Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps(The Rite of Spring).

Next year, 2013, will see the centenary of the first
performance of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du
Printemps. It was premiered at the new Theatre des Champs-Elysées on 29th
May 1913 as part of a programme that included Les Sylphides, Le Spectre de la Rose and the Polovtsian Dances from Borodin’s Prince Igor.

Performed by Serge Diaghilev’s famous Ballet Russe, the
choreography was by the great Vaslav Nijinsky and the costumes were designed by
Nicholas Roerich. The conductor was the young Pierre Monteux who had, two years
previously conducted the premiere of Stravinsky’s Petrushka. As most people
will know, the first performance quickly descended into a near riot. It was not
only the music that caused a protest but when the curtain rose parts of the
audience considered the costumes and choreography to be laughable, one
commentator describing the scene on stage as ‘... group of knock kneed and long
braided Lolitas jumping up and down…’.

The problem was not helped by the fact that the standing room
in the new theatre, occupied by a younger audience who supported all that was
new and fashionable, was placed between the boxes and the stalls. This led to
violent arguments between different factions, with accounts of people being
pounded on the head by people sitting behind them and, in one instance, a well
to do elderly woman standing up with her tiara askew, crying that in all her
years she had never been so insulted. Whether this was by others in the
audience or by the performance we do not know.

Such was the din that the dancers had difficultly hearing
the music. When Stravinsky left the auditorium in disgust he found Nijinsky
standing on a chair shouting numbers to his dancers in an attempt to keep them
together.

Stravinsky later claimed that he had never expected such a
reception to the new work. He went on to recall that, after the performance,
whilst taking an evening walk, Diaghilev merely said, ’Just what I wanted.’
Nevertheless, at subsequent concert performances, Stravinsky’s ‘Rite’ was acclaimed as a masterpiece and
its influence has been felt ever since.

To mark next year’s
centenary, Deccawww.deccaclassics.comhave released a 4 CD box set containing no
less than six performances of Le Sacre du
Printemps drawn from Universal Music’s Decca and Deutsche Grammophon
catalogue.

478 37284 CDs

The earliest performance here is from PierreMonteux himself
in a recording with the Orchestre de la Société des concerts du Conservatoire, made
in the Salle Wagram, Paris in November, 1956. Paradoxically there is a somewhat
old fashioned feel to the playing. Many little details of the orchestration are
brought out in a detailed, if slightly boxy, early stereo recording. Whilst perhaps
not the most dynamic of performances, there is a naturalness to Monteux’s
direction that gives an air of spontaneity even if contrasts aren’t as wide as
some other performances. There is no lack of drama here either, with some gutsy
playing all round. The controlled raucousness of the brass stands out as do some
lovely mellow woodwind sounds. It is good to hear a performance from the man
who directed the première of the work.

From May 1981 we have Antal
Dorati conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the United Artists
Auditorium, Detroit. Here we have superb recording, supremely detailed. There
are biting strings and superb woodwind passages. Dorati doesn’t hang around,
with tempo driven pretty fast when needed. In the quieter moments Dorati adopts
a slower tempo bringing out all the poetry sometimes missed. He knows how to
slowly build the tension in stages throughout the work. The lead up to the
Sacrificial Dance is beautifully paced, culminating in a tremendous climax. Overall
this is probably one of the finest Rites ever recorded.

Ricardo Chailly
recorded Le Sacre in 1985 with The
Cleveland Orchestra in the Masonic Auditorium, Cleveland, Ohio. There is a crisp,
lighter weight to the playing. The recording is good, though not as vivid as
Dorati’s. This is a superbly played, civilised performance with phenomenal
orchestral control and ensemble. The strings and brass are beautifully played, but
not riotous, raucous or in any way wild. This is a very enjoyable performance,
if a little too polished, though it does build to a fine climax.

One might reasonably have expected a pretty cerebral
performance of the Le Sacre from such
a conductor as Pierre Boulez when he
recorded it in 1991 with The Cleveland Orchestra in the same venue as Chailly.
Yet Boulez knows how to build the excitement and tension well before climaxes. He
also pushes the orchestra even more than Chailly, yet retains the same
precision, with the orchestra really on their toes. There is unexpectedly
thoughtful and mysterious playing in Cercles mystérieux des adolescents and, as
Boulez proceeds towards the climax there is some biting playing. The climax is
steady but ruthless.

I already knew Valery Gergiev’s 1999 performance with the
Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra recorded at the Festspielhaus, Baden Baden, a
recording that is full and detailed. There are some wonderfully distinctive
woodwind timbres from the Mariinsky orchestra. The more dramatic dynamics
contrasts build up tremendously with some really fiery moments as the work
progresses. The sudden violent outbursts that erupt, such as in Rondes printanières and Cortège du sage, are tremendous. In the Introduction to Le Sacrifice, Gergiev creates
some wonderful orchestral textures. He certainly makes the most of dynamic
contrasts and there is a longer than usual pause before the final bars.

The latest recording in this set is from 2006 with Esa-Pekka
Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra from the Disney Hall, Los
Angeles. The recording here is good in many ways with plenty of detail but
spoilt somewhat by a slight boominess in the bass. There is polished playing
from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in this well-paced performance.Perhaps at times the performance is a little
too precise and neat. Where the climaxes come they sound a little contrived.
But it does build to a pretty good climax.

I found listening to these six performances of Le Sacre du
Printemps over two days an engrossing and enjoyable task. There are some fine
performances here and a couple of great ones.

So which was my preferred recording from the set? That
accolade must go to Antal Dorati who provides everything you could want in a
performance with great sound to match. I wouldn’t want to be without Pierre
Monteux’s version that gives insights that link us to the first performance
conducted by him nearly 100 years ago. Gergiev’s dramatic performance is one I would
not wish to be without as is Pierre Boulez’ fine performance which brings so
much biting tension. That isn’t to say that the remaining performances here are
in any way below par, it is simply that there are four outstanding performances
that stand head and shoulders over them.

The fourth disc in this set is an audio documentary about Le Sacre du Printemps, narrated by Jon
Tolansky, giving a fascinating insight into the work; its history, music,
choreography and performance, with extracts from Gergiev’s recording and
contributions from many artists including Dame Marie Rambert, who danced at the
original performance of Le Sacre du Printemps, Dame Monica Mason, who danced in
the 1962 Royal Ballet production of the work and went on to become Director of
the Royal Ballet, conductors Sir Colin Davis and Valery Gergiev, Deborah Bull,
who danced in a reconstructed performing version of Le Sacre at Rome opera in
2001 and later became Creative Director at the Royal Ballet and Bernard Keeffe
who worked with Stravinsky.

Decca have done a great service bringing all these
performances together for the centenary. If you haven’t already got these recordings
then snap them up now in a box that will bring much enjoyment.

If this set isn’t enough for you then you may be tempted
with Decca’s other centenary set of 20 CDs featuring all 38 recordings from the
catalogue of Decca,

Deutsche Grammophon and Philips, from 1946 to 2010. There
are performances from Van Beinum, Ansermet, Fricsay, Dorati, Karajan, Colin
Davis, Mehta, Tilson Thomas, Haitink, Solti, Rattle, Ozawa, Dutoit and
Bernstein to name but a few. There is also a piano duet version of Le Sacre du Printemps from Vladimir
Ashkenazy and Andrei Gavrilov.

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About The Classical Reviewer

The Classical Reviewer has been involved in music for many years, as a classical record distributor, as a newspaper concert reviewer and writer of articles relating to music as well as reviewing for Harpsichord and Fortepiano magazine.

He assisted in the cataloguing of the scores of the late British composer George Lloyd and has co-authored a memoir of his friendship with the composer.

Having a particular interest in British music, he regularly undertakes talks on Elgar.

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